Sandeep Kalra becomes India's highest paid IT executive at ₹389cr

Business Aug 12, 2026

Sandeep Kalra, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Persistent Systems, just became the highest-paid executive in India's IT world.

His pay shot up 162.4% to ₹389 crore in FY26. Most of this came from cashing in stock options (₹366 crore), putting him way ahead of the pack.

Persistent Systems growth median pay flat

Persistent had a strong year too: profits jumped 33.2%, and revenue climbed 23.5%.

Indian employees saw an average salary hike of 5.8%, while US staff got a 3.2% bump.

Still, median salaries stayed flat (₹16.76 lakh in India and ₹1.22 crore for US employees) even as the company grew rapidly.